The Wench is Wicked/Blonde Verdict/Delilah Was Deadly - by Carter Brown (Paperback)

About the Book

The first three Lt. Al Wheeler mysteries, originally published in Australia, then revised for the U.S. market starting in 1958 with The Body. This marks their first return to the U.S. market in over 30 years. The Wench is Wicked and Delilah Was Deadly have never been published in the U.S. before.

Book Synopsis

THE WENCH IS WICKED

In which Lt. Al Wheeler must confront--

--a murdered Hollywood writer whose body is discovered at the bottom of a gravel pit with three bullet holes in him...

--a cop who turns up shot to death the next night in the same gravel pit with $3,000 in his pocket...

--and a Hollywood film crew that is shooting a western nearby, starring a cast of characters who all have good reason to see the writer dead...

BLONDE VERDICT

In which Lt. Al Wheeler must consider--

--why a lawyer suddenly collapses and dies in a bar from curare poisoning?

--why the lawyer's wife seems to be so unconcerned about the sudden death of her wealthy husband?

--what has become of the handsome fiancée of the murdered man's mistress?

DELILAH WAS DEADLY

In which Lt. Al Wheeler must contend with--

--the corpse of the social editor found in the safe of the prestigious fashion magazine, in his pajamas and strangled with a girdle...

--a second body, stabbed in the back, this time a murdered cop who had been sent to the social editor's apartment to look around....

--and two more bodies that pile up under similar circumstances, all pointing to someone who could be trying to steal the magazine's latest designs...

Review Quotes

"The hallmarks of the Carter Brown style are brevity, simple plotting, fast pace, much breezy slang...broad humor, lots of action and a liberal strewing of corpses...with a varied cast of series characters, the most noteworthy of which [is homicide lieutenant] Al Wheeler."--Art Scott, Crime & Mystery Writers of the 20^th Century

"At his peak in America, he was selling 350,000 copies a book ... it was difficult to find a country he wasn't published in."--Lyle Moore, Horowitz Publications

"Carter Brown knocked out some instantly likeable and super-readable crime fiction with his Al Wheeler mysteries. With cutting characters, pacey plots, thrilling mysteries and all the other décor that belongs to classic crime pulp. Extremely highly recommended."--Kristofer Upjohn, NoirJourmal